The Dragon Queen of Thelvadore

Unloading the delivered items didn’t take long, mostly thanks to Lady Kallen’s storage magic. He couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of crates, barrels, and bags of wares just appearing out of thin air. Of course, he made sure to double check that nothing was damaged or obviously missing. Tomorrow he would have the individual recipients of the wares double check everything themselves, given that he didn’t have the list of things that were ordered memorised, but at least he couldn’t find anything obviously out of place.

After they were done, he had offered to escort the three women to the Inn. Margret’s wasn’t the only place in town where one could spend the night, but it was the only place in town that readily accepted travellers. And, given the planned expansion, Margret had pushed quite hard to have the building expanded, seizing the business opportunity of serving as the primary accommodation in Dussel.

Raul didn’t have any complaints about it, knowing the woman personally. She was a competent and driven business woman, and together with her husband Phaelix, had run the Inn for as long as he could remember.

It helped that, as a half-elf, she had the charms to draw in customers far and wide.

Just as their small group turned the corner that led to Margret’s, his eyes spotted something unusual at the main gate of the village. Well, gate might be a bit grand a term, given that it was lacking actual fortifications, or even a proper wall.

Along the main road were a number of carriages, some obviously meant for carrying passengers, although the majority meant for cargo. They had all stopped, and even though it was quite a distance away, Raul got the feeling that they weren’t just taking a relaxed break.

His suspicion only got confirmed, when he saw a small group of outsiders talking to some of the townsfolk nearby. He was too far away to be able to hear what they were saying, though. Giving the three adventurers in his company a glance, he found that all three of them had noticed the same thing, their expressions denoting alert interest.

He nodded to himself. It wasn’t hard to guess what their intentions were, so he didn’t even bother trying to tell them to head onto Margret’s without him. The commotion definitely needed his attention, after all, and it seemed the three of them were inclined to accompany him.

As they got closer, he started being able to make out some of the discussion. The ones that had stopped to talk to the strangers were two of the hunters, and Wilfred, a former guard from one of the big cities. The older man had taken command of the conversation and was intently listening to what the newcomers had to say.

“...never seen anything like that before.”

“What is going on here?” Raul asked with authority in his tone as he arrived next to Wilfred.

All attention turned to him, and the former guard gave him a small nod. Finally closer to the group, Raul took a moment to glance over the newcomers, trying to figure out if they represented any danger.

The man in the lead, as denoted by their positions relative to one another, was an older gentleman, very likely human. From his attire, Raul would guess him to be a merchant, likely the one in charge of the caravan. Not exactly a noble, and not one of the merchant lords, but his clothes looked high quality enough, even if a bit crumpled.

The younger man to his left was obviously a warrior of some kind. Given that there were multiple men and women nearby wearing the same kind of attire, he guessed them to be mercenaries, instead of adventurers. Their gear seemed halfway decent, although it was clear that they weren’t a major mercenary order.

The last person, standing to the older man’s right, was a woman. She was very obviously an adventurer, although from her attire he had a hard time figuring out what role she would fill. She wore light armor, but he couldn’t see any obvious weapons on her person. She also appeared to wear some form of thick cloak, as well as a wide brimmed head. Her entire attire was in darker colours, as was her skin tone. Yet, despite this and her pointed ears, she didn’t strike him as a dark-elf. Maybe a Summer Elf? He didn’t actually know if they truly existed, although from the tales they were said to have skin tones in lighter browns.

Returning his attention back to the group at large, he focused back on Wilfred, who had just started speaking.

“Mayor Simmens. These fine folk reported being attacked on the road by an unknown force. They’ve lost a number of men, and were inquiring if we could spare any help for their wounded.”

From the sour expression of the mercenary, Raul was pretty clear that most of the losses had been among their numbers.

“An unknown force?” He raised an eyebrow, looking at the three.

“Some were humans. Or, at least, humanoid. They were talking, although in a language none of us knows,” the merchant began. He looked quite rattled, which didn’t surprise Raul. “With them, though, were strange beasts. They looked like your normal variety of wolves, maybe a bit bigger, although not as big as direwolves, but they were strangely resistant, especially to magic.” He gestured to the woman next to him, who nodded with a neutral expression.

“Could they still be close by?”

At Raul’s inquiry, the merchant shook his head. “The attack happened nearly two days ago. We have done what we could for the wounded, and hurried to the next village, but many of the wounds are beyond our people’s ability to treat. Our Lady Mage is capable of healing magic, but for reasons we aren’t really clear on, it appears that the wounds seem to resist her efforts.”

Once again, the woman next to the merchant nodded, her expression remaining neutral. Raul didn’t miss some glances directed her way, however, mostly from members of the mercenary corp lingering nearby. He noticed, with mild surprise and confusion, that many of those glances seemed… unfriendly, however. Some were even downright hostile. But nobody present commented.

Still, it was a surprising turn of events. And one to which he lacked a great deal of context on.

The merchant seemed to notice the same glances, but continued regardless. From his tone of voice Raul was almost certain it was mainly to forestall a potential argument.

“And even if we had been closer when they attacked us, I believe they have obtained what they were looking for. You see, from the very beginning they seemed strangely interested in one of our wagons. All their efforts were focused only on obtaining it, which is why we got away with relatively little in terms of damage or casualties. The force that attacked us was strong, but once they had taken possession of the wagon they were after, they let the rest of us escape, albeit not entirely without difficulty.”

The explanation opened up more questions than it answered, truth be told, and Raul took a moment to consider it, absently scratching the stubble on his chin. He eyed the rest of the convoy, or what portion of it he could see from his position anyway. Most of the wagons looked identical, but he had enough experience dealing with merchants over the years, that he noticed the small tells that denoted those with more valuable goods. Those were usually closer to the center, and even now had some guards lingering around them.

His train of thought was interrupted by the Lizardkin, who he had escorted so far.

“Those beasts… You said they were resistant to magic, yes? What exactly do you mean by that?” Her tone was neutral, although lacking the carelessness he had denoted in her voice up until now. Her slightly narrowed eyes and hint of a frown only added to it.

The other woman, by this point it was clear that she was a Mage of some kind, stared into the distance for a moment, before her neutral expression locked onto the Lizardkin. “It was… strange. Unlike anything I’ve felt before. It was as if the world itself rejected my attempts at magic. Like trying to fight through a raging river upstream. My magic didn’t seem to want to obey me, moving sluggishly, almost as if something was trying to suppress it.”

Once again, her words drew various glances, none of them positive. It appeared that the members of the convoy weren’t convinced by her explanations. An image formed in Raul’s mind. One of an adventurer hired on as additional muscle, who had eventually disappointed the expectations of their peers, likely due to the described suppression effect. He would lie if he said he couldn’t understand the sentiment.

True, he hadn’t ever been to the larger cities for longer than a few days at a time, nor was he an expert on the arcane, but he had never heard of any magic that could fully suppress another. If such a thing were to exist, he could very well imagine that the knight battalions would make full use out of it, considering the threat that any competent mage could pose on the battlefield, or even in a city. It wasn’t inconceivable that it was kept a secret if it did exist, to prevent others from trying to emulate it, but that still didn’t explain why a bunch of random bandits had access to it.

A short moment of silence befell the group as they all considered the explanation, or waited for a continuation of the conversation. Eventually, the Lizardkin turned her attention to the merchant, asking another question. “And the wagon that they took… What was in there, do you know?”

He seemed to think for a moment, before he replied. “Mostly jewelry. Nothing of magical value, that is far too costly for us to trade in. We also had a few inscription materials, ink, featherpens, parchment. I can’t think of anything else of importance.”

“Chalk? Salts? Ash? Anything of that sort?”

The man seemed confused at the question. The Lizardkin was obviously probing for something, although what exactly was beyond Raul, and from all appearances, also the merchant and the mercenaries. “A minor amount of chalk, but nothing more. Most of the chalk is stored in another wagon. Other than that, none of the times you listed. We do have salts, but they are in another wagon as well, neither of which the enemy seemed interested in.”

Raul watched the Beastkin woman as she inspected the merchant and the mage next to him. Again, her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Eventually, though, she sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Now isn’t that just peachy…”

“You have any idea what this is about?” The elf of the trio asked, turning to glance at the Lizardkin, her eyes sharp, expression neutral.

“An inkling, yes, and not one that I like the implications of. Granted, I’m working with very little information here, but you didn’t miss the similarities to the monsters we encountered, did you?”

That comment made Raul listen up more closely. He turned to the three women he had been escorting so far, expression grave. “Are there more monsters to keep an eye out for?”

To his relief, however, the Lizardkin waved him off dismissively. “No, no need to worry. We encountered them quite far away, and have dealt with them since. There’s no chance that they will ever get close to the village, nor anyone else, for that matter.”

He let out a small breath, one he hadn’t even realised he was holding.

“Anyway,” the Lizardkin continued, “You need help with your wounded, yes?”

The merchant gave a small nod and a pained smile. “Yes, although I’m afraid we won’t be able to offer much in the way of repayments. At least not until we arrive at our destination.”

In reply, the purple-eyed woman gave a dismissive wave. “Don’t worry about such things. I’m not such a monster to charge you showing concern for others. What do I look like, the American Healthcare System?”

She chuckled to herself, although Raul wasn’t quite sure what she was talking about. From the awkward silence and lack of reaction, it was clear that he wasn’t the only one. After a moment, she cleared her throat, seemingly flustered.

“In any case. If it makes you feel any better, I do not offer this purely out of the kindness of my heart. If my assumption is correct, and we are indeed able to help, it will be a great opportunity for Cecily here,” she gestured towards the elf, “to get some training dealing with foreign sources of Void. That is rare enough to be considered payment in and of itself.”

The only reason Raul didn’t miss the small, almost imperceptible twitch of the Mage next to the merchant at the words, was that he was fully focused on the conversation and the people in front of them. The moment was brief, almost too short to make out anything, although he was almost certain he had seen a short spark of curiosity in her eyes, before her expression returned to the same neutral that it had been for the rest of the conversation.

“That said,” the Lizardkin continued, either oblivious to the moment or not caring enough to mention it, “I want to make it clear that I cannot promise any outcomes. All we can do is offer to try.” She glanced over at the elf, Cecily, who gave a curt nod in response.

“Truly, that is already more than we can ask for. If you’d follow me.”

Despite the warning, Raul could detect some desperate hope in the merchant’s tone, even if he did well to conceal it. He seemed quite invested in the fate of the wounded, although Raul couldn’t be certain if that was simply due to the man’s empathy, or some other, ulterior motive. Either way, it didn’t much matter to him.

The three adventurers followed after the older man, the Mage quickly falling into step behind them. That left Wilfred, Raul, and the mercenary alone. The former guard, who had been silent up until now, finally spoke up once again.

“Now then. If there is any way we can help, let us know.”

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